Improved Guardrail V
Program History
In the early 1980s, development began on an product improvement program for the Guardrail V system. The Improved Guardrail V program got underway late 1981 with a contract for 2 systems destined for V Corps and VII Corps in Europe.
A requirement that was placed on the Improved Guardrail V program was to transition to a pressurized aircraft for higher altitude missions. It also desperately needed increased inertial navigation system reliability. The AN/ASN-86 inertial navigation system had proved to be the weak link in system availability. Navigation was key to the direction finding capability and was needed to insure that the aircraft would not drift across the boarder into enemy territory during peace time missions.
Another "requirement driver" for the Improved Guardrail V system was the integration of the Interoperable Data Link in support of inter-service interoperability. The interoperable link originated as a wide band microwave link designed by Sperry Univac for the Air Force. The link had been upgraded over the years and had a number of applications with the armed services. For example, a Ku band version of this link was the basis for the Cefly Lancer link. Guardrail product improvements to the link that established interoperability included dual Ku/X band tracker operation, error encoding, bulk encryption, a wider band uplink, dual airborne antennas and enhanced link diagnostics. The Interoperable Data Link provided vastly increased Guardrail link capacity and added anti-jam features. The introduction of the Interoperable Data Link also moved the link interference outside the band of communications intelligence (COMINT) signals, which would significantly alleviate EMC problems.
One of the Guardrail challenges was the high density airborne signal environment. The availability of newly developed technology for managing the collected signal environment called for implementation of pre-planned product improvements that included the fast direction finding that was jointly developed by Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory, Inc (ESL) and the USAF and the ESL developed Signal Classification and Recognition (SCARS) equipment. The SCARS equipment was developed by ESL under its IR&D program. These available technologies allowed auto search, auto direction finding, area of interest screening and an order of magnitude increase in direction finding through-put with greater emitter location accuracy.
Interoperability with the Air Force was an Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and National Security Agency (NSA) mandated objective for Improved Guardrail V. Achieving this requirement was greatly facilitated by using the common data link and a common fast direction finding technology.
The pressurized RC-12D aircraft used for Improved Guardrail V was derived from the C-12 Huron utility aircraft by militarizing the avionics and cockpit and by integrating the Carousel IV-E inertial navigation system. The Carousel IV-E was a the high accuracy version of the Delco inertial navigation system commonly used on the C-141 and KC-135 aircraft. The Carousel IV-E was a militarized version of a proven, reliable commercial navigation system. ESL contracted with the Beech Aircraft company for the installation of the data link antennas and mission antenna arrays. Certification and qualification testing of the RC-12D was part of the Improved Guardrail V program.
Four vans were used to provide the Integrated Processing Facility (IPF) with some 23 operator stations that were equipped with color graphics terminals. Frequency coverage of the direction finding system was expanded, and a significant upgrade in software was provided to make all the positions capable of doing any authorized computer related responsibility. A greater degree of signal collection automation was made possible by the integration of fast direction finding and SCARS subsystems. A more sophisticated message file was added for interactive report generation. These direction finding and signal processing upgrades made Improved Guardrail V a more powerful system than its predecessor. Improved Guardrail V was truly a significant product improvement over the previous Guardrail V system.
Like pervious Guardrail programs, Improved Guardrail V achieved its schedule and budget and performed in excess of nearly all of its specifications. The pressurized aircraft, the Interoperable Data Link and fast direction finding were particularly successful. Interoperability was tested during system integration and field tested later in Germany. Highly successful deployments and field tests were performed at the V Corps' 205th Military Intelligence Battalion in Wiesbaden, Germany in October 1984 and at the VII Corps' 330th Military Intelligence Battalion in Stuttgart, Germany the spring of 1985. Both systems were successfully deployed during Desert Storm. During the 1990s, the Improved Guardrail V system was subsequently phased out following development of the Guardrail / Common Sensor program.
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